Slat conveyors are used in several applications, for transporting goods or objects along a predefined path. More particularly, slat conveyors may be implemented to divide a single transporting route into two different transporting routes. This functionality may e.g. be valuable if the slat conveyor is connected to a production line, where products should be transported to different target destinations, such as packaging stations. In other situations, the production line may deliver products at a speed which must be decreased for allowing efficient handling. Thus, a slat conveyor may be used to divide the line of products into two corresponding lines, which means that two handling stations would be allowed to operate at half the speed of the production.
Such systems, which are currently on the market, uses an endless driving mechanism to drive a conveying surface having slats, or ribs, arranged transverse of the conveying direction. A number of carriers are arranged on the slats and are guided along the slats by a guide located beneath the slats. Hence, when the slats are moving forwards, the carriers will also move forwards by means of the slats, while they also are urged to move laterally by the guide. Hence, a switch is required to direct the carriers in any direction away from the center of the slat conveyor.
While available systems may be used for different applications, a number of drawbacks become present when the speed of the slat conveyor is increased. For example, in a typical production line for beverage containers, the filling equipment will deliver products at a speed up to 19000 packages per hour. This requires a typical speed of the slat conveyor of approximately 1 m/s. Further, a high resolution of the slat conveyor is desired for allowing the packages to rest securely on the carriers. That is, a package should occupy a number of carriers for eliminating the risk of having the package to fall off the carrier. For example, a carrier width of 3 cm may be used for transporting a package being approximately 9 cm long. Thus, three carriers are occupied by each package, and one carrier will always be carrying only one package.
The switch is therefore required to have the ability to switch approximately every 30 ms, with a very fast response time. If the switch operates too fast, it is not desired to switch when a carrier is moving within the switch. If so, the carrier will be exposed to an excessive force leading to increased wear and weakness of the system. Therefore, the switch must be substantially shorter than the width of the carrier. When the dimensions of the switch is made smaller, the system will consequently suffer from great complexity and small tolerances, leading to increased manufacturing costs and decreased operational stability.